my first song from mixcraft

SEVERAL BUGS with the new website and it’s not worth the trouble!

We’ve had a hard time playing the keyboard into mixcraft. Our lab has Soundblaster Live! 24 bit external sound cards. This is not ideal, but it’s what we’re stuck with. For some reason, when we send the output of the MIDI track (Virtual Instrument) to the soft synth that comes with the sound card (Creative USB Sound Font Synth), we can no longer hear the keyboard. We have to get around it by using Acoustica instruments and setting the latency to it’s lower setting. Even with the lowest setting, there is still some delay, and the sound quality has a lot of pops, clicks, and sometimes doesn’t even work. Students who are adept at piano have to record into the computer using Sonar or Sibelius.

HOWEVER, I will note that for its price, Mixcraft is still amazing! I think Mixcraft is great for beginners who want to mix loops and grooves together to make their own songs and beats. For my class, however, we need something with a little more power.  Maybe Acoustica could make a higher level version for a little more money. The interface is so much easier to use than Sonar, I would be willing to pay a little extra money for the features listed above!

Here’s how to subscribe to a student’s podcast:

1. Install iTunes on your computer (mac or pc – it works on both)

2. Open iTunes and go to Advance>subscribe to podcast

3. Put the following url in there:

http://musictech4u.com/category/subcategory/?feed=podcast

where category is the main category for your child (class) and subcategory is the child’s last name.

Is this too complex? Well, no, not if I can show everyone at back to school night!

Now I have to figure out other ways for people to subscribe other than iTunes. Some people wont’ be comfortable with that.

Well this is just so exciting! Too bad schoolfusion doesn’t allow for student podcasting.

Yay!

-Shannon Gunn

ps this is actually called Category Casting since you’re only subscribing to a certain category.

I would also like to thank David Raimono for sending us 10 free copies of Acoustica’s MixCraft to hand out to the kids. Each kid got one and now they’re going to be able to continue to compose after camp is over!

Rick Germano blames his customer service problems on “high growth.” How is this growth possible with such a bad company? Only because they have a monopoly on high-speed internet! If you want to be able to see videos and look at pictures, DSL and that new broadband access through the electrical outlet just don’t compare. I’m writing to my congressman!

When you call Comcast, and you have someone from another country on the other line, good luck dealing with off-script problems.  For instance, I want to login to comcast and see my bill. I set paperless billing two weeks ago, and now need to know how much I have to give them. So I try to login, but my email is not registered, even though I am obviously registered since I set up paperless billing and received an email saying I need to pay them. So I call them, but the guy on the other line is in India and doesn’t understand so he refers me to the internet department. Now the guy on the other line speaks English but he keeps telling me that my email is *myhusbandsname*@comcast.net. Never heard of this email, nor have we ever checked it. Either they gave us a new email and didnt’ tell us, or they are confused between an email we use to check our balance, and the email they give us when we sign up with them. How do you explain this to a customer service rep? A script just ain’t cuttin’ it!!!!

Lord I hate Comcast! 

I was out of internet for two days last week, due to an “outage” in my area. How is that possible, when I can see about 10 wireless networks that are working from my neighbors? (ha ha) I’m sure at least one of those has comcast!

I will send an email of thanksgiving when FIOS comes around.

Sorry So Negative but I really had to vent!

Shannon